Well I have really struggled with 'indigo' and 'imaginary' for todays rainbow and word challenge. I ended up taking a shot of part of my blue themed patchwork quilt and overlaying one of my fern pictures...bit of text and colour manipulation and this is the result. I admire what others do but waste a lot of time messing about as I have not really learnt how to use the software I have - its always a random trial and error approach that leaves me frustrated.
I would not say this is a lack of imagination at all- in fact, if you took the "no" off I think it's a fine example of how imagination often prompts us to put things together that we would not normally put together- ferns and quilts! Most of my processing is the same as yours- just messing around until I see something I like- although I can find some applications faster than others now and I'm much better at using sliders and working on smaller areas at a time. Anyway! This is far more creative than you're giving it credit for!